Congress' to-do list crowded with budget headaches

By
Jack Moore

Right off the bat, lawmakers face three major issues related to the federal
budget: Setting annual agency funding for when the new fiscal year kicks in Oct.
1; coming up with an alternative to the automatic spending constraints known as
sequestration that are set to take an even bigger bite from federal spending next
year; and negotiating a raise in the borrowing limit before the government
defaults on its obligations.

Setting aside the budget, there are also other measures affecting federal
employees that remain to be worked out, including legislation to overhaul the
cash-strapped Postal Service and a potential 1 percent pay raise for civilian
federal workers.

Did we mention there are just nine legislative days left before Congress faces the
first of these deadlines?

So, at least for the short-term, don't expect any grand sweeping measures from
Congress, experts say.

"I would like to think that what the Congress is going to do is take this
opportunity to resolve — if not once and for all, at least for the next
couple of years — what the direction of the federal budget is going to be
and try to actually create some predictability for federal agencies, contractors
and other people who get money from the federal government," said Philip Joyce, a
professor at the University of Maryland. "There's nothing in our recent experience
which should lead us to believe that that's actually going to happen, however."

Sequestration complicating budget process

The first deadline Congress faces is in passing annual appropriations bills. In a
normal year (which has become all too rare), lawmakers must agree on 12 annual
spending bills establishing agency funding before the new fiscal year starts Oct.
1 — or risk a government shutdown.

"The Congress has done virtually nothing in terms of trying to finance
appropriations for fiscal year 2014, so that's something they're going to have to
deal with one way or another," Joyce said.

Jennifer Hing, a spokeswoman for the House Appropriations Committee said the
funding bill would likely be at the current, post-sequestration levels.

The appropriations process this year has been snarled by the automatic budget constraints
known as sequestration.

The House and the Senate generally disagree about how to account for the cuts. The
House settled on a $967 billion plan that encompasses the total amount of the
sequester cuts but spares the Defense Department from deeper reductions. The
Senate, on the other hand, wants a higher top-line number of $1.058 trillion,
which assumes that sequestration will be repealed or replaced with alternative
deficit savings.

With no plan yet for bridging that $91 billion gap, nearly all analysts agree
lawmakers will punt the issue at least for a few weeks by passing a stopgap
continuing resolution.

"Chances are a CR is going to get passed," said Jessica Klement, legislative
director for the National Active and Retired Federal Employees Association
(NARFE). "But at what levels? That can cause headaches."

That's because sequestration in 2014 will require Congress to keep spending below
the current year's level. If Congress issues a stopgap funding measure that spends
above the budgetary caps imposed by law, that would bring about a forced across-
the-board reduction to bring spending back below the prescribed levels.

"I think federal agencies and other people that deal with the federal government
can expect that if we just have business as usual — which is just an impasse
on the budget and maybe a series of continuing resolutions — we'll see a
sequestration for fiscal year 2014, which will look an awful lot like the one for
2013," Joyce said.